Content

Chronogenetics (humans)

Scientific profile

Sleep is an active and complex behaviour yet it has two straightforward properties – timing and duration. They are influenced by two physiological mechanisms: a homeostatic (how long have we been awake) and a circadian process (timing of sleep). We investigate the genetic basis of these mechanisms using high-through-put genomic approaches for population based association studies. For this purpose, we assess the distribution of sleep timing and duration in human populations worldwide (see location of collaborating groups below – yellow circles).